Just a Dance
by s p a r k l e g l i t t e r
Summary: Monks were not supposed to appear in modern Tokyo. Especially not perverted ones. And most especially not where her friends would see him! [Kagome x Miroku]


**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Inuyasha, nor will I at any time of this fic. If somehow I suddenly come to own it, then you will know. -_-  
  
**Spoilers:** Up to Episode 23 and... probably later.  
  
**Anything Else You Need to Know**: This is done entirely for fun. I think. Possibility of a few Rurouni Kenshin characters being introduced, but it will be friendly to those who have not watched it. Consider them original characters, if you wish. *AU Alert, AU Alert* - Yes, this does take place really, really early in the anime/manga, but... really, it's AU more than it's not. ^_^  
  
**Genre**: Romance. Humor. Angst. Whatever else my mind conjures up.  
  
    
  
  
~`~`~`~`  
  
**Chapter One:**  
  
     _Well's Kept Secret_
  
  
~`~`~`~`  
  
    
  
  
Higurashi Kagome was, under any _normal_ circumstances, considered a very rational girl.  
  
A very good, _usual_ kind of girl.  
  
Without special powers. Or purifying arrows. Or pink little jewel shards resting oh-so-innocently in her pocket, digging little gouges into her thigh as she attempted - really, truly attempted - to concentrate on her textbook. Okay, so maybe shifting just a _little_ bit wouldn't hurt her...  
  
_Or maybe it will. Ow._ She flinched and gripped her pencil tighter. There was just no way she was going to be able to get them to stop poking her unless she moved them, and she definitely wasn't going to do that. No. Much better to keep staring at the little numbers blurring before her eyes. Maybe then she would become invisible and he wouldn't ask--  
  
"What's this?" The all-too-familiar voice interrupted her hopeful delusions.  
  
The pencil snapped. "What's what?" _Yes. Play innocent as long as you can._  
  
"This!" A wisp of fabric was tossed onto the pages. It took her a moment to concentrate past her relief and see the pink cotton for what it was.  
  
Her cheeks reddened. _My bra? How did he - wait a second. He's going through my underwear?!_ Cloudy blue eyes narrowed as she slowly raised her head to stare coldly at the man standing expectantly before her. One eyebrow twitched slightly as she took in his curious look. _He has to know what that is. I know they don't have them in the Sengoku Jidai, but really..._ "What do you think you're doing?" She prided herself on the amount of control she held over her voice. Cool. Controlled. Faintly lecturing.  
  
"You _said_ to look around." The curiosity filling his face faded to confusion. "And to ask you questions when I wanted to know something."  
  
Kagome bit back a sharp response. "I didn't - that is..." She took a deep breath. _Be calm. Be very, very calm. Remember, he isn't from this time. He's from 500 years ago. So he doesn't know what's off limits._ And that, of course, would be her fault. She could have taken the time to explain things - but she had been rather irritated when he'd shown up.  
  
Not that he had made it any better.  
  
"Where did you get this from?" she asked, forcing herself to relax. He pointed in the direction of her dresser, where the top drawer was open and pawed through. "If there's one place you aren't supposed to go through, it's there."  
  
"Really? Why?"  
  
"Because," she responded primly, setting her mathematics textbook aside and walking over to shove the drawer closed. "It's just one of those things."  
  
"So, you're finally talking to me again?"  
  
She jerked slightly. "What do you mean?"  
  
"You've been giving me the cold treatment since I came through the well."  
  
It wasn't surprising that he'd noticed. It had been rather obvious. But still...  
  
"No, I wasn't."  
  
Denial was a wonderful thing.  
  
And since he wasn't Inuyasha, he didn't press it. Instead, he sat gingerly on her bed, appreciation flooding his face once he realized how comfortable it was. He settled back more comfortably, tossing his staff to the side in a careless manner. It gave a dull thud after hitting the carpeted floor.  
  
Guilt began to tug at her, and she moved toward him in a vague gesture of apology. "Maybe I was. A little."  
  
"Oh?" That devil-may-care grin suddenly flashed. He reached for her hands and held them gently. "So does this mean you will reconsider my request?"  
  
She blinked - he'd changed everything around on her. "What?" Instinctively, she began to tug out of his grasp. No such luck - he wasn't letting her go.  
  
"The one I asked when I first met you." He smiled, that disarming expression that had melted many a village girl's heart. "Will you bear my child?"  
  
"Ka-Kagome?!"  
  
Stunned anew by a question she'd already heard once, it took her a moment to recognize the scandalized voices raised in chorus. Very slowly, she turned to face a dreadful sight at her very open door.  
  
Her best friends stood there in shock, eyes riveted to the monk sitting lazily on her bed. And she _knew_ that they'd heard his little question.  
  
Embarrassment pooled in her stomach; her cheeks burned. "Y-Yuka... Eri... Ayumi... It's not what it seems!" She jerked her hands from Miroku's grasp, waving them pleadingly in the air.  
  
"Why, Kagome-sama... who are these beautiful women?"  
  
"Ka-Kagome-_sama_?" the three girls half-shouted in disbelief.  
  
"M-Miroku-sama, please..." She squeaked as he threw an arm around her waist and pulled her close, standing easily. "What are you doing?!"  
  
He gave her a lopsided grin. "I needed help getting up?"  
  
"Oh... you..." she sputtered, desperately wanting to shout at him yet needing to tend to the more important problem - her friends' perception of someone they really should _not_ have met - before giving him a piece of her mind.  
  
But then she felt a familiar touch slide from the indentation of her waist to cup her bottom intimately. And she _couldn't move,_ because that lecherous man was had wrapped his other arm around her to keep her still. _Why... he's... milking this for all he's worth!_  
  
"Kagome!" Yuka gasped, scandalized.  
  
"It's not what it - Miroku-sama, let me GO! - it's not what it looks like!" Kagome soothed - or tried to - while struggling out of her companion's grasp.  
  
For the briefest of moments, she found herself wishing Inuyasha was there to save him from the monk's lechery. But then she remembered that she was quite furious with the hanyou, and that sliver in time passed.  
  
In an act of desperation, Kagome balled her hand into a fist and punched the monk's belly. Hard.  
  
He grunted, and in the moment his grasp slackened, she managed to slither away - though not without her clothes becoming somewhat mussed.  
  
She fixed them in frantic movements as she tried to silence the sudden barrage of shouted questions and demands emanating from her loudest friends. "Yuka, Eri, please," she begged. "I'll explain, if you'd just..."  
  
"Why, there's nothing to explain," Miroku interrupted. Suddenly the girls fell quiet as he walked up to them, smoothly reaching out to grab Eri's hands and smile into her eyes. "Beautiful lady, would you do me the honor of bearing my child?"  
  
Not being as... inured to his antics as her friend, the schoolgirl's hand came flying up to meet his cheek. He winced.  
  
"Miroku-sama! You - sit - there!" Kagome exploded, pointing imperiously to her bed. "And don't you _dare_ move from that spot! Yuka, Eri, Ayumi-chan..." she ushered them out of the room over their protests. "I'll explain everything..."  
  
    
  
-...-    
  
  
"So he's your cousin." Yuka spoke flatly as she stared at her friend over the kitchen table.  
  
"Cousin's brother-in-law," Kagome clarified primly, sticking desperately to the little lie she conjured up.  
  
"And this Kikyou..." She barely managed to hide her wince. _Why couldn't I come up with a different name?!_ "...is your father's sister's daughter who married this guy's brother?"  
  
"Uh-huh." She strove for an innocent look. "Recently," she added helpfully, in case they'd forgotten.  
  
"So why didn't we hear about Kikyou before?" Ayumi interjected, looking hopelessly confused. "We know about all your other family..."  
  
"Um..." Her mind raced. "She was in America for a long time, and Mama never really mentioned her to me."  
  
"Oh." The trio sat back then.  
  
"Kagome..." Yuka looked as though she desperately wanted to say something, but wasn't sure of how to say it. After an internal struggle, she said delicately, "I don't think you should be... alone... with Miroku-kun."  
  
She blinked. "Eh?"  
  
"He's part of a gang, isn't he?" Eri asked. "Those clothes he was wearing... and he had a ponytail!"  
  
"No - no gang. He's a, um, monk." She fidgeted a little in her seat.  
  
"Then why was he asking--"  
  
"He jokes around," Kagome blurted. Her friends didn't look convinced. She hesitated, then said quickly, "It's American humor."  
  
"So he's American...?" Ayumi asked doubtfully. Not that she could be blamed for it; Miroku was quite obviously Japanese.  
  
"No - he just spent a couple years there." _I'm getting better at lying. Is that good or bad?_ She shifted uncomfortably on her seat.  
  
"Well, then." The soft-spoken girl smiled innocently. "Why don't you bring him to the dance?"  
  
"Dance?" Kagome echoed stupidly. _Danger, danger: Don't get yourself in too deep!_  
  
"Tanaka-kun's party...?" she prompted gently.  
  
Right. She'd nearly forgotten in all the shard-hunting excitement. The richest kid in school had issued exclusive invitations to a select few of his classmates, to attend his parents' engagement party. They were allowed to bring dates, of course, and it was an extremely formal, sophisticated event.  
  
And Kagome had been invited.  
  
Which she'd only noted in passing - at the time it had been mentioned, she'd been worried over Inuyasha coming to get her with his normal ill humor. Ah, yes - the blissful days when she didn't have to worry about _two_ different people from the Sengoku Jidai coming to drag her back for shard hunts.  
  
"I don't know..." she hedged, forcing her mind back on topic. "I might not be able to make it..." _Especially if Inuyasha's in a bad mood... or if we're a few days away from the well... or if I murder Miroku-sama... or if Kikyou murders me._ Right - not fun to think about.  
  
"Whaaat? But you have to!" Yuka wailed. Eri nodded vigorously.  
  
"You can't miss it - your social life will be ruined!"  
  
_Surprisingly... it's not as important as it would have been a month ago,_ Kagome thought with a little sigh. Then she smiled brightly. "Well, you never know, I might get sick again."  
  
"But you just got over the measles!"  
  
"Uh - yeah - but you know how it's been lately..." _Measles? Honestly, Grandpa..._  
  
"Have you worn those health sandals Hojou-kun bought you?" Eri asked slyly.  
  
"Eh?" Kagome blinked, then blushed as she remembered the sweet gift. "Ah - no..."  
  
"That's right!" Yuka said suddenly. "You can't go with Miroku-kun - you need to go with Hojou!"  
  
_What I need is to get off this topic,_ Kagome thought desperately, ignoring the resultant squabble as the girls wondered who would be the better date.  
  
    
  
-...-    
  
  
She was taking quite a while to come back.  
  
Miroku poked the soft white... thing next to him. It felt rather comfortable.  
  
Gingerly, he put it back up against the headboard where it had been, then carefully lay down, setting his head on the thing she called a 'pillow'. She'd slept with one, once - before Inuyasha had torn it apart in his attempt to clobber the little kitsune cub.  
  
Ah, yes. It _was_ comfortable. Very nice. Perhaps she could be enticed into bringing one for him - but such things must be expensive. Well... there were ways he could pay her back...  
  
Unfortunately, she didn't seem to be the type to believe a child was adequate payment.  
  
Pity.  
  
But he could always try, right?  
  
_Right,_ a little voice in his mind whispered cheerfully.  
  
Well - so there it was.  
  
He shifted uncomfortably, wondering with some annoyance how long Kagome-sama was going to take. He wanted to quiz her about those lacey things he'd found in the thing he wasn't supposed to go through. Which only made him want to go through it again - she'd never really been picky about what he touched before. So it was important.  
  
Maybe even something he could use as blackmail for some of that sweet, rich, melty-gooey stuff that Kagome-sama's mother made. What was it called again? Oh, yes. Chocolate. Shippou gorged himself on it in the other era...  
  
_Other era._ He shuddered. It was so... odd, to be calling his time that. Or any time other than the past. His past, that is, not Kagome-sama's past. Which, technically, would be his present.  
  
Except that he was in her present, so it was actually his past for the moment.  
  
Oh yes - he loved to think that through. Kagome-sama always pled a headache after he tried to walk her through it, so he hadn't been able to get much farther than that - but oh, it was so interesting...  
  
Almost as interesting as the well. It seemed to have a fondness for holy powers and shikon shards.  
  
As he'd found out not too long ago. Now he was spending more time in Kagome-sama's time (it gave him a rather unmanly fit of giggles to think like that), and it was... wondrous! All the knowledge that he could absorb! And the short skirts.  
  
Oh, yes - he could never forget the short skirts. Or those lovely 'pants' the women wore that clung so deliciously to every curve. Though they were rather uncomfortable to wear. Kagome-sama had bought him a pair, and they were so... restricting.  
  
Restriction. Very interesting - perhaps the woman of this era would feel thankful if he'd helped them out of the... erm... 'pants'. Then they would have more freedom of... movement. And he would have a much better view.  
  
Perhaps Kagome-sama would--  
  
"_Mi-ro-ku-sa-ma!_"  
  
Uh-oh. The too-enunciated syllables grated on his ears, but the young monk pushed himself into a semi-upright position, managing to smile disarmingly at the beautiful girl glaring so heatedly from the doorway. "Yes, Kagome-sama?"  
  
"Don't. You. Ever. _Ever!_ Do. That. Again." She bit off each word. "You have no idea of the damage control I had to do!"  
  
"Da-mage con-trol?" he inquired curiously. She opened her mouth to answer, then closed it with a rather nasty little look.  
  
"You aren't getting off the hook that easily," she pronounced ominously. He decided it was in his best interest not to mention that she was using those 'expressions' again. The modern ones.  
  
They were interesting, but made no real sense.  
  
"Of course not," he agreed amicably, still smiling. She crossed her arms. Yes - very soon the anger would disappear and she would start pouting.  
  
Oh, she was adorable when she pouted. Not that he would ever mention it, of course. Inuyasha still grasped Tetsusaiga every time he came near the girl - as though groping her _once_ was such a bad thing.  
  
Then again... it hadn't exactly been 'once'.  
  
More like twenty times.  
  
Or fifty.  
  
But that was completely off topic. And the topic was diffusing Kagome-sama's anger.  
  
"I apologize most humbly for embarrassing you in front of your gorgeous friends," he added helpfully.  
  
The pout was delayed as her glare heated once more. Oops - he wasn't supposed to compliment the others. Right. Reminded her of his lech - er, odd habits.  
  
"Uh - is Inuyasha back yet?"  
  
That was successful. Her attention was immediately diverted - something that had begun to irk him (What _did_ she see in him, anyway?), but currently only made him feel relieved. Then guilty for thinking so badly about his new companion - but it wasn't as though they got along, anyway.  
  
No, the real problem was that she held Inuyasha in such high esteem that it was wrong to think badly of him... because she didn't. Though that wasn't to say she had certain choice words that slipped out during times of anger.  
  
Hmm... what would she say when - _No. Keep your mind away from there, monk,_ he cautioned himself. _This isn't the time to do something stupid. She'll just get angry at you again!_  
  
"He better not be," she snapped peevishly. "I can't believe he tried to hack you to pieces in front of Mama! I was so humiliated! I suppose I should feel lucky that she didn't demand that I never see him again - she was really understanding, actually..." An understatement. The woman hadn't even flinched. Why, if she weren't Kagome-sama's mother (and if she didn't have a certain look in her eye that made her seem like his own mother), she would be worthy groping material. Er - that is - a wonderful... conversationalist. Yes. Conversationalist was a good word. Kagome-sama had taught him that.  
  
"Oh! But that made me so angry," she fumed, the pout beginning to appear. Finally.  
  
Good. Now he could relax. "I would think you would be used to it by now, Kagome-sama," he replied dryly.  
  
She sniffed and tossed her head. "I was, until you suddenly appeared here. Which I still don't understand!"  
  
He noticed that he was twirling his staff in his hands - he hadn't even realized he had picked it up. Hmm.  
  
"Yes, well... I did explain," he pointed out reasonably. She finally left her post at the doorway and sank into her twirling seat.  
  
"But it makes no sense!" she whined. And she did so adorably - not in an annoying fashion. Funny, that he could consider her whining cute. It wasn't on any other woman.  
  
Right. Back to subject.  
  
"The well responds to spiritual powers," he said patiently. "Yours are so great that you do not need a shikon shard to travel through - though there must be one in both eras for the time channel to be open. Mine need the added enhancement of the jewel in order for the well to allow me through."  
  
"But Inuyasha isn't a monk," she muttered.  
  
He bit back the urge to point out that it was quite obvious how he managed to retain the aura of purity, and explained. Again.  
  
"He was sealed by Kikyou-sama's hand. As she was a great priestess in life, that energy seeped into his body and soul - especially due to their... bond..." Delicate ground. Those glorious blue eyes dimmed slightly. He hurried on, "and the well recognizes that power. It may also be a link between he and you - for he held love for Kikyou-sama, and you are her reincarnation."  
  
"Right. Her reincarnation," Kagome agreed dully, glancing out the window.  
  
His shoulders slumped slightly. It was a touchy subject with her - she was never truly angry with anyone over it (except, perhaps, with Inuyasha in the recesses of her mind) - but the depression that made itself so heartbreakingly known in her face affected everyone greatly.  
  
Except, again, Inuyasha.  
  
That idiot.  
  
He was normally fine with the hanyou - even if their friendship was not quite smoothed over - but the way he treated Kagome-sama was simply wrong. Such a wonderful woman deserved more.  
  
Like children.  
  
With monks for a father.  
  
Correction: _a_ monk.  
  
Like Miroku himself.  
  
He looked at her thoughtfully, only to be given a flat stare. "Don't even think about it," she warned.  
  
Darn.  
  
Well - when she didn't see it coming, then that luscious swell of her hips would once again be graced with the presence of his hand...  
  
Like when she began to concentrate on that math book once again.  
  
Yes - he would give up his questioning of these odd items of the future for a chance to soothe his itchy fingers.  
  
And so he waited...  
  
    
  
  
*`*`*`*`*`  
  
**Miyami's Blurb**: Um... yes. Is this not stupid? I know it's stupid. Oh, well. You know the drill - read and review, if you would be so kind. *holds out her bowl* I haven't had a thing to eat today. ^_^  
  
Yes, yes, I _know_ I'm supposed to be working on other stuff. Like the stories I haven't finished yet. But... but... this idea has been bothering me for a while! Though the pairing itself is very, very experimental for me. I'm not sure I can pull it off, and I have a nasty feeling that this is just going to turn out to be crap. But, hey, if it goes down in dung, at least it'll be fun. Right? ^_^;  
  
Rating may be upped at later chapters, but I'm not sure...  
  
Actually - do any of you think it's above a PG-13 rating as it is? -_-  
  



End file.
